Repertoire
Sergei Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 “Classical” in D major, Op. 25 (1917) 15′
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Violin concerto in D major, Op. 35 (1878) 33′
Robert Gerhard: Albada, Interludi i Dansa (1936) 10′
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet, fantasy opening (1880) 20′
Artists
Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (OBC)
Sergei Dogadin, violin
Stephanie Childress, conductor
Program
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s concerto for violin and orchestra is possibly the most renowned of its kind. With a solo capable of being played by only the most daring virtuosos, the work reaches one of the undisputed peaks of Romantic expression. Tchaikovsky composed this piece shortly after Symphony no. 4 and the opera Eugene Onegin, during the healing period after one of the stormiest episodes of his life, with an unprecedented sensitivity to capture the infinite range of feelings of the human soul.Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s tragic love story, shapes one of Tchaikovsky’s most inspired works, an overture-fantasy that recreates the characters and experiences from the paradigmatic tragedy of doomed love. Conceived as a highly descriptive structure, the musical themes represent the different phases of the plot, reaching one of the most famous climaxes in the history of music with the full presentation of the love theme in the final section of the play.
A break with the Romantic orchestral language bequeathed by authors such as Tchaikovsky is what led Sergei Prokofiev to revisit the classical legacy prior to Glinka and lay the groundwork for a neoclassicism that Franz Joseph Haydn took as a model. This is the starting point of Symphony no. 1, “Classical”, a composition that goes far beyond the emulation of 18th-century symphonic models and foreshadows one of the more fertile currents of the last century.
The concert is opened by Albada, interlude and dance, by Robert Gerhard. Composed during the Spanish Civil War for a series of BBC radio broadcasts, the play shows full identification with the Republican cause based on the incorporation of popular melodies along with avant-garde treatments.